Dynamic response of cardiac autonomic nervous system activity to habitual exercise during gradual variation of breathing frequency

The purpose of this study is to measure cardiac autonomic nervous system activity during breathing control with gradual alteration of the frequency between habitual exercise and sedentary young male subjects. In this study, to evaluate CANS activity, Tone-Entropy analysis, which is based on statistical property of acceleration between consecutive R-R intervals, was used. Sixteen healthy young male subjects (21.6+/-1.4yrs) were participated in these experiments and their R-R interval sequences were recorded. The controlled breathing trials let the subjects synchronize their breathing frequency ranging 3 to 30 breathing per minute. After that, breathing frequency was gradually and reversely decreased from 30 to 3 breathing per minute. Before and after the breathing controlled trials, 5 minute voluntary breathing trials were performed. Our results showed that total CANS activities of HE group were activated more than those of SE group in the entire sections and also that, as compared with HE group, maximum of average HR in SE group was appeared at 30 breathing per minute and it is recognized that the statistically significant difference between HE and SE group was shown. In conclusion, our results suggest that efficiency of cardiac function on habitual exercise in breathing control may be quantitatively and graphically evaluated with HR and Tone-Entropy analysis without any physical stimulation.